Delhi Sultanate: Administration & Architecture Quiz — 7 Free Questions

Question 1

What was the term for territory whose revenues were kept for the Sultan's own treasury and household, rather than assigned to nobles?

Question 2

Which features marked the position of upper-class women in northern India during the Sultanate period?

Question 3

Which Sultan's token currency of brass and copper coins, meant to circulate at the value of the silver tanka, ended in failure because of widespread forgery?

Question 4

Which north Indian Bhakti poet-saint of the Sultanate period, associated with Banaras and traditionally linked to Ramananda, preached a formless God and attacked both Hindu and Muslim orthodoxy?

Question 5

Which Sultan first organised the iqta system as a regular method of paying nobles and controlling territory?

Question 6

The arches of the earliest Sultanate buildings, such as the screen of the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque, were made by which technique, borrowed from Indian tradition?

Question 7

Which gateway, built by Alauddin Khalji in 1311 as an entrance to the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque, is the first Sultanate building with a true dome and true arches?

📚 All Quizzes

Browse every category and see the full list of quizzes on BriskQuiz

→

About Delhi Sultanate: Administration & Architecture

This quiz is meant for students preparing for the IAS examination and other competitive tests, and for anyone who wants a clear picture of the Delhi Sultanate, its government and its buildings. It covers the five dynasties -- the Slave or Mamluk line, the Khaljis, the Tughlaqs, the Sayyids and the Lodis -- from Qutb-ud-din Aibak in 1206 to the defeat of Ibrahim Lodi at Panipat in 1526. The heart of the quiz is administration: the Sultan and the central departments such as the Diwan-i-Wizarat, the Diwan-i-Arz and the Diwan-i-Insha; the nobility and the court; the iqta system and provincial and local government; land revenue, taxes such as kharaj, zakat and jizya, and the coinage; the army with its branding of horses and descriptive rolls; and the market-control system of Alauddin Khalji and the canals, towns and welfare departments of Firuz Shah Tughlaq. The other half is architecture: the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque and the Qutb Minar, the true arch and dome of the Alai Darwaza, the sloping walls of the Tughlaqs, the octagonal and square tombs and the double dome of the Sayyids and Lodis, and the provincial styles of Jaunpur, Bengal, Gujarat, Malwa and the Bahmani Deccan. It also covers the sources, Sufism and the Bhakti movement, and the culture of the age. When complete it will have one hundred and twenty carefully checked questions, arranged in five packs of twenty-four.

Every question has four options, and the correct option can be in any position. After each question there is a detailed explanation of more than five lines, in simple Indian English that a school student can follow, giving the important dates, names, technical terms and the points that examiners like to test.

Every fact has been checked against standard reference books on medieval Indian history and against the accounts of the contemporary chroniclers.